When it comes to tweaking your CPU for that extra boost, we've all heard about raising the voltage on components to handle overclocking. But have you ever considered going the opposite route and lowering the voltage? It's a nifty technique called undervolting, and it's all about ensuring your CPU's longevity. Think of overclocking as putting your CPU through an intense workout. It performs better, but it heats up, and over time, that heat will damage your CPU and lower its performance. Enter undervolting, a bit like giving your CPU a spa day.

A PornHub banner from the 2023 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. | Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images Porn sites Pornhub, XVideos, and Stripchat face stricter requirements to verify the ages of their users after being officially designated as “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOPs) under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA). In a press release today, the European Commission said the three sites “fulfil the threshold of 45 million average monthly users in the EU.” The sites will have to comply with the DSA obligations by February 2024.Being designated as a VLOP means the sites will also have to conduct risk assessments and mitigate the spread of illegal content like child sexual abuse material and deepfake pornography. There are also transparency requirements like being subject to external audits, publishing transparency reports... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Valve announced a new privacy feature for the Steam client today that lets players choose whether certain games they buy and own are visible to others on the platform. According to the update announcement, starting today, Steam beta testers will be able to mark games as private to keep them, well, private.You can mark a game private from three places: your shopping cart; your game list in a web browser; or from the Steam client itself. The new privacy filter is great if you’ve been holding off on buying OnlyCans: Thirst Date for the last two years or so or you really don’t want your friends to know that you’re deeply into oddly specific simulator games. Image: Valve Beta users can now make purchases private... Continue reading…

Apple is infamous for its walled garden approach, where it plays by its own rules. So, when people submit to the company's ecosystem, they're restricted from performing certain actions that other platforms are open to, such as easily sideloading apps. This places Apple in a powerful position, where it often gets away with its decisions, even when most users aren't happy with it. After all, controversial changes like removing the headphone jack from all iPhone models aren't enough to push its loyalists away.

Next-generation Apple CarPlay UI in an Aston Martin. | Image: Aston Martin Apple said we’d get vehicle announcements tied to its “next generation” of wireless CarPlay by the end of 2023, and today, it delivered mock-ups of the dashboard-spanning UI styled for Porsche and Aston Martin. Instead of simply taking over the infotainment center and small segments of the in-dash areas, it seeks to overhaul all displays of the given vehicle. The theme is distinct to each automaker and also gives CarPlay access to the vehicle’s features, like your radio and temperature settings. In the Porsche setup, there’s a three-dial layout with the speedometer on the left and a wallpaper made to match its houndstooth seat pattern.In the Aston Martin layout, there’s a media display in the center, surrounded by the speedometer and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed new changes to the regulations it currently enforces under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), seeking to further limit the collection and use of children’s data by tech companies, especially when used for targeted advertising. “Kids must be able to play and learn online without being endlessly tracked by companies looking to hoard and monetize their personal data,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in the official announcement. According to Khan, the proposed changes would prevent companies “from outsourcing their responsibilities to parents” when it comes to managing children’s data. According to the FTC, the agency received more than 175,000 public comments in 2019 when it... Continue reading…

Of all the drives on your computer, the boot drive is the most important since it contains the operating system. Whether it's a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD), it'll contain everything your computer needs to boot. SSDs are generally faster and more reliable than HDDs or something like a USB drive, so it's recommended that you use one as a boot drive on your computer. Seriously, swapping out your old spinning hard disk drive for an SSD is one of the best upgrades you can make to speed up your computer. Not only will it boot the operating system faster, but even the programs installed on the OS drive will launch quicker. There are plenty of ways to create a boot drive and use a new or existing SSD as a boot drive, and the following steps will get you started.

Image: Apple Apple’s June announcement that it would launch the Vision Pro headset “early next year” could be very early. As Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports, things are lining up for the device to launch by February. He says we shouldn’t expect another launch event — which is understandable for a $3,499 device that will probably have a limited supply — but bringing this to market is a major undertaking that means preparing Apple Store employees to guide new users, adjust fitting, and deal with prescription lens options.Launching the first new Apple hardware platform in years includes new software with visionOS, and Gurman is already pointing to its next version, which should arrive later in 2024 along with the usual Mac and iPhone software updates.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The UK Supreme Court ruled that AI cannot get patents, declaring it cannot be named as an inventor of new products because the law considers only humans or companies to be creators. The court unanimously denied a petition from Stephen Thaler, founder of the AI system DABUS, to name his AI as an inventor. The UK’s decision aligns with a similar decision made against Thaler in the US: he previously lost an appeal with the US Patent and Trademark Office, which also denied his petition to claim AI as an inventor. The US Supreme Court declined to hear the case. In the UK, Thaler wanted to register DABUS as the inventor of a food container and a flashing light beacon back in 2019, but the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) rejected the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Warner Bros. Discovery might merge with another entertainment giant: Paramount. Sources tell Axios that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav held talks with Paramount CEO Bob Bakish on Tuesday about a possible merger.The meeting reportedly took place at Paramount’s headquarters in Times Square, with the two CEOs discussing how the companies could complement one another. That could include combining Max and Paramount Plus to compete with streaming rivals like Netflix and Disney Plus. Zaslav also discussed a deal with Shari Redstone — the head of Paramount’s parent company, National Amusements — Axios reports. We still don’t know whether Warner Bros. Discovery would buy Paramount or National Amusements if a merger actually does... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple has lost its bid to delay an import and sales ban on the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2. In a filing on Wednesday, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) denied Apple’s motion to stay the ban while awaiting an appeal.On Monday, Apple announced its plans to pull the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 from store shelves in response to an October ruling from the ITC, which said the company’s SpO2 sensors infringed on patents from medical device maker Masimo. The last day to purchase the Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 from Apple stores is December 24th, while the import ban officially goes into effect on December 26th. Apple is already exploring ways it can avoid the ban, including by implementing software changes, according to Bloomberg.... Continue reading…

Belkin’s 3-in-1 charging stand makes for a great StandBy companion, regardless of whether you own an Apple Watch. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge The Qi2-based chargers are certainly coming, but if you can’t wait for them to land next year, Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charger with MagSafe is on sale now at Amazon in black for a new low of $110.99 ($39 off) or in white for just $9 more.To this day, Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro remains our favorite MagSafe 3-in-1 stand for home use. The triple charging solution offers true 15W MagSafe charging speeds, the ability to fast-charge newer Apple Watch models starting with the Series 7, and support for iOS 17’s new StandBy mode, which gives you an easy way to turn your phone into a clock, calendar, or a nifty photo frame for your desk. It’s also outfitted with a 5W charging pad on the bottom, so you can juice a pair of wireless... Continue reading…